Our Cats - From 1 to 13

This is the 'tale' of how we went from one cat to thirteen. If you are looking for details of any of our individual cats, please see their own pages (One each for the breeding queens, and a combined page for all the neuters).

Tiger

Our first cat was Tiger, whose 'story' can be found in the 'Gone but not Forgotten' section. By the time we found out that there was a chance he had cancer, I couldn't image being without a cat, so we decided to get another one. At that time, Jinny had come into Animal Care in Lancaster, where I was volunteering, and we adopted her 'just in case'. Unfortunately, Jinny had been abused before she came to us, and although she is now a lovely cat, it took years before she made a good 'pet'. When Tiger had to be put down, there was still a huge gap that Jinny was too terrified and flighty to come close to filling. We decided, therefore, to look for a kitten to fill the gap.

I wanted a cat with a personality similar to Tiger's, so I researched the personalities of the different pedigree breeds. Maine Coons seemed to be most similar in temperament to Tiger, so I started looking for a Maine Coon kitten. After one false start, we were put in touch with Helen and Brenda (Elmcoon Maine Coons) in South Yorkshire. They had two litters of 8/9-week-old kittens, one of which was a red tabby boy that I was interested in because Tiger had been a ginger tabby.

Jinny (front) with Call (middle) &
Ali (back), as kittens

These things never go according to plan, however, and one of the brown tabbies kept chewing my fingers in a most adorable way. I fell in love and 'booked' Call that day, although I couldn't pick him up until a few weeks later, when he was 13 weeks old.

At that point, I was still volunteering at Animal Care, and whilst waiting to collect Call, I fell in love with one of the kittens there. He was a feisty wee monkey; one of three kittens born to a feral mum, and a few weeks younger than Call. One of the kittens brothers was a red tabby, which I would have loved, but once again I was in love with one that wasn't red. Initially, Richard said no, but after meeting 'Ali', he changed his mind. Since Ali was a moggie, we were allowed to take him home at 8 weeks old, so he actually arrived with us a week before Call did and they grew up thinking they were brothers, in spite of the size difference.

Call & Ali with Gealbhan

In 2006 we moved from Lancaster to Scotland, taking our trio with us. In early 2007 I was surfing online and noticed that there were Abyssinian breeders, Maureen and Lorraine Pontello (Pontaby Abyssinians), only about 15 minutes drive from our house. I had admired the look of Abys for several years so I phoned the breeders and asked if we could go round just to meet their cats. We should have known that just 'looking' wasn't going to be possible, and we came away having been 'chosen' by one adorable wee sorrel boy. We called him Gealbhan, and his lovely rich colour was close enough to a red to keep me happy! Unfortunately, he went missing in January 2008 - a rabbit had chewed a hole in the mesh that was supposed to keep the cats in and Gealbhan had gone out through it. A neighbour later told us they thought they had seen him being put into a car in the street beside the house.

Gealbhan had been such a character that we really missed his presence when he went missing. Once a couple of months had passed by, we started looking at getting a cat to fill the gap (are you seeing a pattern emerging here??). We didn't want another Aby so soon, since it would remind us too much of Gealbhan, so we looked for other breeds with lively, interactive personalities. We decided that Ocicats sounded perfect, or possibly Devon Rexes and I started contacting breeders of both. We had read some pretty strange things about Devons, so one Devon breeder arranged for us to meet with some of her previous kittens who lived with a couple in Falkirk. We thought they were lovely and decided that they were what we would look for.

Call with the Devons as kittens

After a few more weeks we found Jen and Laura Pinches (Velvarex Devon Rexes) in Bolton, who had a litter of five girls of the right age to be seeing visitors. We made the trip down to meet the kittens the next day. One wee tortie had never shown an interest in any other visitors but was all over us straight away and so once again we were chosen by our new kitten. However, towards the end of our visit, the only cream kitten in the litter decided that she would come and see us too. She had been asleep until that point, but seemed to take to Richard. We left the Pinches having reserved the tortie (Amlach), but only got half way up the M6 before we phoned them to ask if we could reserve the cream as well (Coimhlion). To this day, she is still very much Richard's cat.

The Devons with Tármus

Meanwhile, my friend Amanda (Rushbrooke Asians, Burmese and Bengals) in Cambridgeshire had been in touch to ask if I would consider doing her a favour. She had an Ocicat queen that was needing a new home for various reasons, but Amanda wanted her to go to a multi-cat home (that was all she had ever known) and one where she could have secure, outside access. We could offer both those things, so I agreed to go and meet the cat whilst on a business trip in the area. She had the most fantastic temperament, so I agreed to take her, and arranged to go and collect her a few weeks later once she had been spayed. That cat was Tármus.

From left to right:
Ali, Amlach, Annas, Call, Jinny,
Tármus & Coimhlion

When I went to collect Tármus, some of Amanda's Tiffanie kittens, who had only been tiny balls of fluff when I first went to meet Tármus, were now running around in the livingroom. One was a gorgeous black girl. For years, Richard had been saying that he would like a black cat, so I asked Amanda if the kitten was reserved. She wasn't, so I reserved 'Annas' as a surprise birthday present for Richard.

Since Annas' brother, Charlie, had taken best Foreign kitten in his first show, Amanda suggested that we should try showing Annas, which we decided to do at the Teesside Cat Club show in August. The Pinches had also suggested that we bring the Devons along to the very friendly and enjoyable 'Rexfest' show in Bearsden the same month, run by the Scottish Rex Cat Club (SRCC). Neither the Devons nor Annas did particularly well at those first shows, but we had a great time and decided to enter some more. Over the next few months we 'caught the show bug' and have since shown all of our cats, including the moggies. As she grew older, Annas started to develop quite nicely and by the time she had made up to Champion in January, we were completely hooked!

Whilst in Lancaster, Richard and I bred rabbits (black and chocolate tans), and after our first experience of the pedigree cat world, whilst looking for Call, we had decided we would one day get involved in breeding. As Annas progressed on the show bench, people started saying to us that we should breed from her. Around December of 2008 into January of 2009, Richard and I decided that our situation is now as good as it's ever going to be to get involved in breeding. Breeding is never something that you should enter into lightly, and we gave it a lot of though, and preparation. You can find more information about what is involved, including the costs, in the Breeding section of the 'Other Cat-Related Info'.

Tármus & the Devons
with Katie

We talked to Amanda about the suggestion of breeding Annas, but were all in agreement that she wasn't going to be the best queen for us to start with, since her Dam and Grand-dam both made poor mums who were reluctant to look after their kittens. Hardly the best start for first-time breeders. After seeing the preparation that we had put into it, Amanda suggested, instead, that if we wanted then she would give us the next 'breeding quality' kitten that she had from her new outcross queen, Dulcie. We were thrilled by this offer, since Amanda doesn't usually sell kittens for breeding. By chance, Dulcie gave birth to a stunning silver shaded girl not long after that and Amanda was as good as her word, even allowing us to choose Katie's name. This is particularly remarkable since there turned out to be no other girls in the litter and we therefore have the only one, in spite of much interest from elsewhere (including Amanda herself!). We will be forever grateful to Amanda for her integrity.

Annas with Xaria

Around the same time, one of our other friends, Elisabeth Stark (Dushenka Russian Blues) was thinking about re-homing a girl out of one of her previous year's litters, that had been kept back whilst Elisabeth considered her for breeding. Elisabeth had decided not to breed from this girl, Xaria, but she did have lovely type, so Elisabeth wanted her to go to a 'show home'. We apparently seemed like a good choice, so Xaria joined us the day after we collected Katie from Amanda's.

The 10 cats before the arrival
of Breckin, Kia & Monty

After further consideration, we decided that we would prefer to have two Tiffanie queens. In an ideal world, we will breed them at around the same time, so that they can provide support to eachother in raising their litters. This may never work out, but we think it's a good dream! We therefore had to find another Tiffanie queen, and after looking around for a while, I was put in touch with Joy Wakenshaw (Dayjoy Tiffanies and Norwegian Forest Cats) in Northumberland. After being thoroughly checked for suitability as a potential owner, we were able to bring Dàrna home as our second queen.

When discussing the decision to actually get started in cat breeding, Richard and I had realised that there were two breeds we would be keen to work with: Tiffanies and Ocicats. Both fulfilled our 'criteria' of being a breed that make excellent pets and to which we, as breeders, could make a real difference, since neither breed has all that many people working with it. Whilst looking for our second Tiffanie queen, I had also started talking to some Ocicat breeders about the possibility of getting involved in the breed.

Dàrna (top left), Katie (top right),
Amlach & Breckin (bottom left)
& Annas & Kia (bottom right)

After speaking to Rosemary Caunter (Thickthorn Ocicats), who was very supportive of our desire to get involved with the Ocicats, I got in touch with Stacie and Ian Shorten (Ameeka Abyssinians and Ocicats) in Lincolnshire. I explained that I was interested in working with both the Ocicats and the Ocicat Classics, which is a new breed that is currently working through the assessment stages towards Championship acceptance.

Stacie had two young litters of Classics that looked likely to contain something promising, but didn't have any of the traditional spotted Ocicats available. Instead, she put us in touch with Rita Leggett (Yesso Ocicats) in Norfolk, who did have a female kitten of suitable quality. I travelled down to Lincoln and Norwich to visit both lots of kittens, and agreed that we would like to take one of the classic girls (Kia) from Stacie and Ian, and the spotty girl (Breckin) from Rita.

Breckin, Kia & Monty
cuddling up together

Around the same time that the Ocicat girls were born, Lorraine had bred a litter of kittens from Gealbhan's Aunt. In that litter was a stunning wee boy (Monty) with a fantastic personality, and Lorraine thought he would be perfect for us. She invited us through to meet him, and inevitably we fell in love. We tried very hard to resist, and poor Lorraine didn't know whether we would take him until he was virtually ready to leave home, but we couldn't help ourselves and eventually succumbed to his charms!

Cagaran Cats

Our Cats - From 1 to 13